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News you can use to cut annoyances

As many of you know, I had to cancel my land based phone because of two reasons – 1) telemarketers were the only calls I got on that line; and 2) my phone had some kind of glitch and every time it stormed, emergency 911 was dialed and the police would show up at 2 in the morning. This happened three times.

The AT&T people came out repeatedly and were confounded by the situation. I always got the feeling they suspected I was a lonely old woman with too much time on her hands and just dialed 911 in some kind of pathetic attempt to have some visitors. Hooey!

Everyone knows I don’t get up until at least 3 a.m.

I wish I had known about the three little words that can “put off” the telemarketers. The three little words are: ‘Hold On, Please… ‘

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then, when you eventually hear the phone company’s ‘ beep-beep-beep ‘ tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your phone. Mission accomplished.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

Having said all this, I must admit that in my previous life as communications director for the Mississippi Republican Party, I supervised the telemarketers who came in every evening and made phone calls about our candidates and did surveys. It was a thankless job and they were primarily young people trying to supplement their incomes. My heart goes out to anyone trying to make a living this way. (Please forgive me for making your job harder.)

Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

Reportedly, this is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘ real ‘ sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

Junk Mail Help – this is brilliant!
When you get ‘ ads ‘ enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these ‘ ads ‘ with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those ‘ pre-approved ‘ letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Many of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 41 cents postage, ‘ IF ‘ and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away!